METHOD OF OPERATING FUEL CELL SYSTEM AND FUEL CELL SYSTEM

摘要

A fuel cell system whose construction is simple without the use of any assist combustion system; and a method of startup and operation control thereof; and a highly reliable fuel cell system capable of safe operation. There is provided a fuel cell system including reforming unit (5) capable of reforming raw fuel (m) into reformed gas (r); combustion unit (4) capable of combusting the raw fuel and heating the reforming unit; carbon monoxide reduction unit (6,7) capable of reducing the content of carbon monoxide in the reformed gas to thereby produce gas with reduced content of carbon monoxide (g); and fuel cell (30) using the gas with reduced content of carbon monoxide as a fuel gas, wherein the raw fuel is fed to the combustion unit so as to heat the reforming unit to a given temperature, wherein subsequently the feeding of raw fuel to the combustion unit is terminated and the raw fuel is fed to the reforming unit so as to produce reformed gas, and wherein the reformed gas is introduced in the carbon monoxide reduction unit so as to heat the carbon monoxide reduction unit and the gas with reduced content of carbon monoxide produced by the carbon monoxide reduction unit is introduced in the fuel cell to thereby generate electric power.